Four children were playing together when one began to misbehave by hoarding all the toys. When reasoning and spanking didn’t work, time out on the couch followed. This child was told to sit there and watch the clock until the big hand was on the ten. Unfortunately, the child repeatedly slithered off the couch. Each time an additional ten minutes was added to the time out along with the warning that a spanking would result for continued disobedience.
Every unsaved individual lives on a precarious slippery slope. At any moment they could be swept into eternity where all the lost will stand before a just God who will severely judge their sins. Paul calls this “…the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God…”(Romans 2:5). They may think they can “…escape the judgment of God” (2:3), but eternal punishment is certain for every individual who “…despiseth…the riches of His [God’s] goodness and forbearance and longsuffering…”(2:4). Presently, God offers forgiveness and eternal life to all who will trust in Christ. But those who stubbornly resist the wooing of the Holy Spirit and reject faith in Christ Jesus are accumulating punishment and intensifying God’s wrath with every rebellious act. Romans 2:5 describes it this way: “But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” Like water being restrained behind a huge dam, God’s wrath is presently held back by His love, grace, and mercy. But just as an abundance of stormy rain can cause the water to break over a dam in angry swirls of destruction to all downstream, eventually God’s wrath will be released to punish every lost soul. It won’t be God’s fault when His wrath falls on lost souls either. Grace has been patiently offered to all. Until the day when divine punishment falls on lost souls, the sin of every unsaved individual accumulates and increases the torment they will experience in eternity.
A lost soul was recently telling me about talking with a friend who, at the age of twenty-two, died in a fatal car wreck. My friend said, “He had no clue his life would be over in thirty minutes.” We who know Christ as Savior must keep in mind the looming wrath of God on lost souls who are within our sphere of influence. Speak to a lost soul about their need of eternal life today. Tomorrow may be too late.